Words that are going out of fashion / usage

guitars4you

By Gum or even Ee by gum

Get cracking - as in get on with it 

Tannin

Is it not curious that "Madge and 'Arry are having it off" and "Madge and 'Arry are having it on" mean the exact same thing!

Offset

guitars4you said:

Get cracking - as in get on with it 

I think it's morphed into 'crack on!'

MagicPigDetective

Piddle 

Timcito

guitars4you said:

By Gum or even Ee by gum

Get cracking - as in get on with it 

I think there are various words that were used by our parents' generation and beyond to avoid saying 'bad' words. 'Golly,' 'gum,' 'heck,' 'blimey,' 'crikey,' etc. substituted for stronger words that were considered blasphemy or improper in polite company. These days, with the rise in popularity of the inarticulate thug hero and the relaxing of standards, such 'softer' expressions have largely become redundant.

On the 'crack' line, I think few people say 'crackers' to mean 'insane' now. 'Potty,' also meaning insane, seems similarly obsolete.

Lebarque

Timcito said:

guitars4you said:

By Gum or even Ee by gum

Get cracking - as in get on with it 

I think there are various words that were used by our parents' generation and beyond to avoid saying 'bad' words. 'Golly,' 'gum,' 'heck,' 'blimey,' 'crikey,' etc. substituted for stronger words that were considered blasphemy or improper in polite company. These days, with the rise in popularity of the inarticulate thug hero and the relaxing of standards, such 'softer' expressions have largely become redundant.

On the 'crack' line, I think few people say 'crackers' to mean 'insane' now.  

In a similar vein, my son and I say 'hogwash' quite a lot to avoid profanities:

What a load of hogwash
That's utter hogwash
That bloke's a hogwasher

Lebarque

Balderdash

Jfingers

Nincompoop, milquetoast, bounder, Gary, please...

Litterick

Dominic said:

Kittyfrisk said:

Litterick said:

Supportact said:

jonnyburgo said:

Wally, as in "Oi Jenkins you Wally, come here!"

I still use 'wally'. Because it sounds quite mild these days, if someone does something really awful or stupid and you refer to them as a wally, it's almost as if the understatement emphasises the fact. Also no one can really take offence (don't think so anyway, although I'm not sure where it comes from). 

 Legend has it that someone at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was shouting the name, calling for a friend or a dog, and the crowd took it up as a chant. The Wally chant was repeated at almost every large rock concert in Britain in the seventies, including Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979.

Was certainly thriving at the Weeley festival in 1971 

I had to live in Weeley (well,v close ).........such an awful ,uneventful nowhere place that the main topic of conversation there is still that bloody festival 50 years ago !
There's a big roundabout ,Mc Donalds and a Petrol Service Station on that site now.

Mark Ellen describes the Weeley Festival in his autobiography, Rock Stars Stole My Life. It was organised by the local Round Table, who usually ran cake stalls and a Guess the Weight of the Vicar contest. Instead, they had Rod Stewart, T. Rex and the cream of prog, playing through the night. The Hell's Angels patrolled the perimeter, carrying chains and looking for troublemakers.

Kurtis

I've noticed quite a few times people starting a sentence with "hell". Do people actually talk like that? 

Jimbro66

Timcito said:

I think there are various words that were used by our parents' generation and beyond to avoid saying 'bad' words. 'Golly,' 'gum,' 'heck,' 'blimey,' 'crikey,' etc.

In our household we were permitted 'flippin', 'blooming' and 'blinking' when I was a youngster but I once crossed the line by using 'bleeding'. My mum angrily told me that if I ever used that language in the house again she'd wash my mouth out with soap  

How things have changed.

Sporky

Our rear neighbours, complaining that one of our builders had said "bollocks" once, described their son as "no lillywhite".

He certainly didn't seem the sort to own a successful sporting goods emporium, especially as the parents could only be described as "sporting" if one includes darts as a sport.

Timcito

Jimbro66 said:

Timcito said:

I think there are various words that were used by our parents' generation and beyond to avoid saying 'bad' words. 'Golly,' 'gum,' 'heck,' 'blimey,' 'crikey,' etc.

In our household we were permitted 'flippin', 'blooming' and 'blinking' when I was a youngster but I once crossed the line by using 'bleeding'. My mum angrily told me that if I ever used that language in the house again she'd wash my mouth out with soap  

How things have changed.

"Flippin' 'eck!" really did carry sufficient force to express our exasperation, didn't it?

Actually, Eastenders was always interesting in this sense. The language in an equivalent series in the US (a little difficult to imagine as American media shows scant interest in poor people!) would have stripped the paper off the walls. However, good old Den and Phil and the gang never said anything much stronger than 'For cryin' out loud!' ... and, oddly enough, it worked, at least for me. I never felt that the lack of colorful expletives was an issue, and yet the language was thoroughly inauthentic in avoiding them.

Kurtis

Shut the fridge! 

Kurtis

Douchnozzle. 

Kurtis

Having a young son and not wanting to swear too much in front of him I find there are loads of new and satisfying non-sweary words to use. 

HAL9000

Birds (meaning girls)

sinbaadi

Splendid.

Dominic

I say Splendid a lot

hollywoodrox

robgilmo said:

Kittyfrisk said:

robgilmo said:

I think as attitudes change so does wording, few people still have the ability to say ''oh well'

... don't ask me what I think of you

I might not give the answer that you want me to.

Can't help it 'bout the shape I'm in
Can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin

I always imagine oh well being played  to the riff of Black Dog 
it works well in my head